Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Boosting Marketing with a Promotional USB Drive

Promotional USB drives come in a variety of sizes, shapes, materials and colors. While the old flash drive of the eighties and nineties consisted of one rectangular shape that was either black or white; 2014 custom flash drives introduce a new opportunity to the promotional industry.

The typical flash drive had a basic appearance and was used to store data. The point being the data could be saved, opened on any computer, edited and saved again. Other than the basic function of sharing and saving, there was no other purpose for data storage. This year alone, there are over 10 respectable companies that honed in on the production of promotional USB drives.

Standard Rectangular USB Drive

Promotional companies have refined their engineering and graphic design skills to push the image of a typical flash drive further than its intended use. Thus, extending the technological life of these gadgets. With their innovative thinking flash drives can now be made from a variety of materials including:

All of the materials can be morphed into different shapes and are not limited to the basic rectangular flash drive design. Clients from around the world and in different industries including: food and beverage, hospitality, government sector, education, marketing, advertising agencies and even a few of the 50 United States. Clients have really started to take advantage of this idea and create their own promotional USB drives.

This is most likely because this is the new marketing tool. Replacing traditional marketing tools was a daunting task for the USB promotional industry, but it has finally paid off. Goodbye to throw away flyers, printed plastic cups, boring ball-point pens, lifeless lanyards or one-time enjoyable candies; custom promotional USB drives are the new tool of choice in 2014. The customization process is not limited. Clients have the ability to decide on what shapes, colors, textures, memory size, packaging and even the information that is preloaded onto the flash drives.

For once, companies are not forced to decide on a bad or generic event or party favor. Instead, they are finally receiving a great return on investment with this more innovative tool. How is that? Well, 80% of promotional tools are thrown away within the first year of receiving it. Unless, of course, the item is functional in the receiver’s everyday life. Custom technology is in the 20% bracket of not being thrown away. Actually, it is kept 5-10 years as long as it does not break or is not lost. That alone encourages companies to choose a product that has a long term value because it allows for more free face-to-face marketing time. And in this world, that time is difficult to come by.

If you play your cards right and design a one of a kind promotional USB drive, the consumer/receiver will see your name every time they pick up the drive; every time they plug the drive in; every time they pull the drive out; every time someone asks ‘where did you get that from?’ With every time that your name is seen consciously or subconsciously, your brand gets close to free marketing and product placement for others who see the custom flash drive.

Any drive can be customized by color or 3D shape. The most popular models are infact the 3D models. The process starts with giving an original idea, design, drawing or actual product and receiving a mockup or rendering that you must approve. Once your design is fully approved, a custom mold is put into production. From there, individual pieces are glued and pieced together in order to create your one-of-a-kind promotional product. Typically, it takes three or four weeks for the complete shipping of the product.

If you don’t have that much time to spare for you event, many promotional USB companies also offer quick services. For more of the traditional promotional USB drives, these can be completed in as little as 24-hours. That service is called RUSH and most of the USB companies provide this service.

So if you’ve got an event coming up, don’t wait. Take initiative, research a few companies, order samples and get the next finest marketing tool you’ve ever used before.